Brady says retirement is not in his future, but maybe it should be
In the midst of a divorce partly due to his choice not to retire, Brady says it’s still not his plan, despite an embarrassing 24-3 loss to the Panthers.
Should Tom Brady have just stuck to his original plan of retiring this season? Things are a mess for the Buccaneers quarterback, on and off the field. But let’s focus on the on-field issues for now. The Buccaneers are at 3-4 after losing to a Kenny Pickett and Mitch Trubisky-led Steelers team last week and a rebuild Panthers team this week. That’s just embarrassing.
“I want to do a great job for this team like I always have,” said Brady after sarcastically telling reporters he was there to announce his retirement. “No retirement in my future.”
The Panthers fired head coach Matt Rhule just weeks ago, ejected wide receiver Robbie Anderson from a game before trading him away last week, then finally traded away running back Christian McCaffrey to the San Francisco 49ers just days ago. They are a mess and yet…they beat the Buccaneers. They didn’t just beat the Buccaneers. They shamed them. They humiliated them with a 21-3 loss. Brady threw some sloppy passes, including one that should have been a touchdown to wide open Mike Evans, who dropped it instead. That left the game scoreless for the majority of the first half. When that finally changed, it wasn’t the Bucs who made the change. Panthers quarterback P.J. Walker threw a 20-yard touchdown pass to D.J. Moore to get the first of the game. Then, in the third quarter, they made it a two-touchdown game with a 19-yard touchdown run by Chubba Hubbard.
As for Brady, he completed just 32 of 49 pass attempts for 290 yards. The Bucs were 2-for-12 on third down conversion attempts. Panthers third-string quarterback P.J. Walker was 16 of 22 for 177 yards and two touchdowns. Every year, people doubt Brady due to his age, and every year, he proves them wrong. But this year, he lost - and I cannot stress this enough - to the Steelers and Panthers.
That interview in which Brady said retirement was not part of his future, was conducted before the Bucs’ second embarrassing loss to the Panthers. But it was conducted after the first embarrassing loss to the Steelers, after a minor shoulder injury, after taking a controversial 11-day break from training, after his divorce from Gisele Bundchen, after he threw a(nother) tablet in frustration, after he yelled profanities at his offensive line, and after he attempted to kick Falcons DE Grady Jarrett and got fined $11,139 by the league. It’s not been his best moment for a while now. Will he be capable of retiring if the season continues this way? Or will he insist on continuing until he has another winning season? If so, when could that be? Perhaps he indeed just should have literally quit while he was ahead.